Why do you all want to take away money from the government? Who will then build

[Inedible]

I suspect most of the people here saying that the roads would be maintained by the users aren't considering areas where there are fewer houses or poorer families.

The areas with fewer houses will either need to be owned by rich people or they'll have to move closer to town. Fine.

What happens to the poor areas?

What about road standards? I built it, I demand people drive on the left.

What about sewage, water supplies, telecoms infrastructure and of course, health care?

It's not like the roads are made out of gold; suburban roads are often rarely driven on (some do turn into major roads but most of them aren't), and don't need constant maintenance like the road you take to get to work with all the other people in a traffic jam and whatnot.  Fewer houses or not, poor or rich, it's a non-issue.

Road standards don't change depending on who built it; if everyone knows "I drive on the right", they're going to do it regardless of how you feel.  If you attempt to enforce your strange rule by force, you're probably not going to survive long.  Get mad if you want to

All of these things are already handled by individuals; the illusion is that taxation is necessary or these cease to exist.  We know this is false because if we want these things, and we've wanted for far more sillier things than infrastructure and health, then we will pay for businesses to provide it.  We must begin with the assumption that people aren't incredibly stupid and inept, for if they are, we really don't want them in any position of power anyway.

I think you're falling into the trap of believing everyone would be as generous (or even as well off) as you. The problem with people, is they're lazy and greedy. If some people feel they can wiggle out of paying for a road, they'll do that, even if they use it the most.

You probably feel that everyone will be fair about it. They won't.

[1713501374]

1713501374

[Inedible]

Taxation is legalized theft.  No tax is fair.

Theft is also theft.  I thought you had stolen enough and were leaving for good?

I guess it's only unfair if the government does it.

[Inedible]

Why do you all want to take away money from the government?

Governments are the most inefficient entities that have ever existed. We can choose a monkey at random and he'll perform better at every function a government "performs".

The (local) optimal way to perform these functions is by letting the free market decide. Note that this is also democratic because the market is everyone (weighted by contribution).

Government isn't about efficiency. It's about doing things that people ordinarily won't.

People can barely organise to get a stairwell kept clean between 6 properties. Don't tell me that thousands of people would be fair about getting roads maintained.

[Inedible]

Wala, anarchy.

Do you mean voilà?

[Inedible]

Airline style.

Everyone pays for everything they use, and nothing they don't. Plenty of money left over.

Every road is a toll road.
Every bridge is a toll bridge.
Security and protection cost $ (cops don't really protect anymore, they investigate) and those who need it will be able to afford it
The military is in serious need of democratization.

Just research how much of your dollar goes to tax in the end. Not just obvious direct taxes, but indirect taxes. (Costs passed down to you)

Does this exclude the poor from travelling? If a poor person ends up being killed, do we just ignore it?

[Inedible]

No worries, I'm the exact same way with Thomas Edison. That dirty rat.
And also JP Morgan (the man) and Ronald Regan.

I hope to see an overhaul of my gov during my lifetime. It saddens me deeply to know, based on empirical historical data, that a true overhaul only comes at the cost of bloodshed.


The topic was why do we want to take $ away from the gov, then, secondly, who would then build our roads. Well, here in the USA, it would be the same private contractors that build them now. Tolls would be a lot higher, but without 80% of every dollar I make going directly and indirectly to taxes, if I wasn't losing that the higher toll (for every public service I utilized) would be much easier to manage.


I see your point, and I agree that as a person TJ was in most human aspects a fine upstanding example of utter douchebaggery.

I don't think anyone cares who builds the road, more who pays for it.

Tolls discourage usage too and that'll have a negative impact on the economy.

[hashman]

when money becomes managed by the people not the government, who will build streetlights, roads? who will maintain infrastructure and military? who will save our lives from giving us obamacare?

are you a communist or what?

Last time I checked the federal reserve doesn't build roads. 

[Rassah]

well, i don't entirely disagree with anarchists.. i hate politicians and executives as much as they do. i'm definitely not in favor of the status quo. i just don't think having an anarchistic society really fixes any of those problems.

The main effect of anarchy is that is converts political problems into financial problems. To keep the problems we have not going, you need political power to fund it through taxation, and enforce it through rule of law. For these same problems to continue under anarchy, you still need to fund them, though your only option is to do something to make people willingly part with their money (offer competitive products and services), and your only option to enforce it is through force, which you would have to pay for and maintain yourself. Forcing people to give you money is difficult, and paying for force is expensive. Often much more expensive than th simply trade with people. Historically, trade has always been more profitable and effective than war.

[Ecurb123]

well, i don't entirely disagree with anarchists.. i hate politicians and executives as much as they do. i'm definitely not in favor of the status quo. i just don't think having an anarchistic society really fixes any of those problems.

Yes; anarchism leaves out too many factors to consider, so usually when anarchism is spoken of, it's in a bubble that seems disconnected with all of reality.  This is why I push for rationalism, opposed to anarchism; if a person is rational enough to successfully seek the truth, and if I've been successful in my own pursuits, we should always arrive to the same, or at least very similar, conclusions.  Once it's understood that anarchism can only remain among a rational society, many of the unknowns become irrelevant; you just can't pull the wool over the rational's eyes.

Anyhow I agree with a very simple philosophy: all societal interactions should be voluntary, i.e. voluntaryism.  This happens to include anarchism since the state is involuntary, and rationalism so people are highly resistant to ulterior influence; after all, why pay someone to do what you can easily do for yourself?

i'm not for or against voluntaryism.. but someone told me about it a few weeks ago. if people stuck to their own groups, wouldn't that cause extremism? it's what we are seeing with the american political system.. 90% of republicans are whities. they feel like the non-whities are starting to outnumber them, so they turn more and more "white."

also to point out, in my experience the voluntarists I've met are really the most open people to diversity I've ever seen.   

[Ecurb123]

I suspect most of the people here saying that the roads would be maintained by the users aren't considering areas where there are fewer houses or poorer families.

The areas with fewer houses will either need to be owned by rich people or they'll have to move closer to town. Fine.

What happens to the poor areas?

What about road standards? I built it, I demand people drive on the left.

What about sewage, water supplies, telecoms infrastructure and of course, health care?

How would YOU structure a private road system?

Do you possess the ability to think outside of the box?

I don't think it would work and thus I have no solution other than some form of tax.

I can think out of the box but that doesn't help in a society that won't accept any unusual solutions.

There was once a time when people said that we could not be economically viable without slavery, somehow we managed. Just because you or I don't know the solution, isn't a good reason to attack people.   

[Mike Christ]

I think you're falling into the trap of believing everyone would be as generous (or even as well off) as you. The problem with people, is they're lazy and greedy. If some people feel they can wiggle out of paying for a road, they'll do that, even if they use it the most.

You probably feel that everyone will be fair about it. They won't.

They're lazy and greedy if they can get away with it; if your road falls into disrepair and you don't want to pay for it to be fixed, and everyone felt that way, then the roads would look like shit and that's okay since the people driving on them don't care enough to pay for it.

I don't believe everyone is lazy or greedy; if there's anything I know about people, it's that they're very, very exhausted from work, and have very little money to work with, but perhaps I see this more often since my family has many Hispanics.  Remember that without these fees for government overhead, you become far richer; the amount of greedy people plummet, since they have no more cause for greed; they already have the things they want and need.

[hawkeye]

I think in regards to roads, people fall into the trap of thinking there is one way of paying for them, one way of doing them since government has been doing them for so long.

Surely, if all roads are private then all roads will be toll roads?  Right?

Not really.  Thinking about the shopping centre car park for example.  Do they charge people to park their cars there?  No.  Why not?  Because the amount of money spent in the upkeep of the car park is more than compensated for by the profits that the centre makes.  This will be true of many businesses.  They will be eager to maintain the roads in their vicinity as a way for customers to get to them.

Then you have residential roads which could be easily maintained by a small annual fee by all the people who live on the road.

For larger roads ,the potential for advertising money is enormous.  Think of all that traffic throughput that will be seeing those advertisements.  The price of the upkeep of the road will be significantly less than what you could obtain from companies wanting to get their names and products in front of consumers.

These are just things I can think of off the top of my head.  I'm sure there are many more free market ideas out there. 

[BitsPoker]

when money becomes managed by the people not the government, who will build streetlights, roads? who will maintain infrastructure and military? who will save our lives from giving us obamacare?

are you a communist or what?

I thought the government was the people. 

[Mike Christ]

when money becomes managed by the people not the government, who will build streetlights, roads? who will maintain infrastructure and military? who will save our lives from giving us obamacare?

are you a communist or what?

I thought the government was the people. 

It is; she's referring to the difference between representatives and the lack thereof.

[Elwar]

Why do you all want to take away money from the government?

heh

ya guys, why do you want to take away all of government's money?

bunch of thieves stealing from the poor defenseless government

[Inedible]

I suspect most of the people here saying that the roads would be maintained by the users aren't considering areas where there are fewer houses or poorer families.

The areas with fewer houses will either need to be owned by rich people or they'll have to move closer to town. Fine.

What happens to the poor areas?

What about road standards? I built it, I demand people drive on the left.

What about sewage, water supplies, telecoms infrastructure and of course, health care?

How would YOU structure a private road system?

Do you possess the ability to think outside of the box?

I don't think it would work and thus I have no solution other than some form of tax.

I can think out of the box but that doesn't help in a society that won't accept any unusual solutions.

There was once a time when people said that we could not be economically viable without slavery, somehow we managed. Just because you or I don't know the solution, isn't a good reason to attack people.   

What do you mean 'attacking people'?